Saturday, December 20, 2014

December 20, 2014 - INDIA
- In some of the heaviest spells of snowfall Uttarakhand has seen in
recent times, 30 people, according to the State Disaster Mitigation and
Management Centre, have died in the hills in the last two days.

Himachal Pradesh also recorded heavy snowfall. The icy winds coming
from these hill region swept Uttar Pradesh as well, leading to drop in
temperatures. Lucknow was coldest in UP with minimum temperature 6.6
degrees Celsius.

WATCH: Cold wave hits North India, over 30 dead.

People woke up to foggy morning in Lucknow.
However, strong winds cleared sky by 9 am. These winds also kept mercury
low during the day. The maximum temperature despite bright sunshine was
21.5 degrees Celsius, three degrees below normal. On Thursday, maximum
and minimum temperature is expected to be around 21 and 7 degrees
Celsius respectively. In the coming days, the Met officials said that
the night temperatures would drop below five degrees Celsius.

Heavy snowfall in Almora, Pithoragarh, and Bageshwar

Meanwhile, 13 people died in Uttarakhand's Kumaon region alone in the
past two days. Administration sources said that while three people died
in Nainital, two collapsed due to the biting cold in Haldwani, three in
Bageshwar, including an agriculture officer, and one in Bhimtal.
Officials in the Disaster Mitigation Centre said they are trying to get
detailed figures, but in these weather condition that was proving tough.

In Pithoragarh district, a private car slipped on the snow and
went down a deep gorge, leaving two people dead and three seriously
injured.

Electricity
supply was snapped in several parts of Kumaon as thousands of trees had
fallen, many on power lines. Water supply, too, was non-existent as
pipes froze.Sources
in the district administration said Almora had not recorded such snow
in over 40 years. In Pithoragarh, for over nine years, snowfall has not
been so heavy and so early. And there were reports that Bageshwar had
broken a 46 year-record.Snow piled up to about two feet in many areas of Kumaon, paralyzing life further.Roads
were hit equally badly, with traffic cut off in large swathes of the
hills. Twenty roads in Almora, Pithoragarh, Bageshwar and Champawat were
covered with a thick blanket of snow. Hundreds of passenger buses and
jeeps are still stranded, with local people volunteering to offer those
stranded food, water and shelter.

Almora DM Binod Kumar Suman said, "At least 5,000 trees have fallen in the district, many on top of houses.
We have restored power in 60% of the urban localities and 40% of rural
areas. Today, we managed to rescue hundreds of stranded people. Some
roads in the district have been cleared and opened. We are working on
the other roads."

The district magistrate said for any emergency situation, people could call the toll free 1077 for help.

Minimum temperature was one degree Celsius in Almora, minus 3 degrees
Celsius in Pithoragarh, and minus 1 degree Celsius in Bageshwar. - Times of India.

December 20, 2014 - INDONESIA
- Mount Gamalama in North Maluku province of Indonesia erupted at 13:41
UTC on Thursday, December 18, 2014, sending ash and rocks 2 km into the
sky and forcing the authorities to close an airport and issue warnings
to planes. Nine people were injured while running to escape the
eruption. One person is still unaccounted for, authorities said.

Increased seismicity around the volcano was observed since 08:30 UTC.
It then sharply increased at 13:09 UTC (22:09 local time), about 30
minutes before the eruption.

Evacuation orders are still not in
place, however, a senior official from the disaster management agency
in North Maluku province said the communities are ordered to be on alert
of possible cool lava flowing in rivers as rain is frequent in recent
days.

Sutopo Nugroho, a spokesman for the National Disaster
Management Agency, said the volcanic ash was still blanketing much of
the city of Ternate on Friday morning.

Meanwhile, USGS is registering a swarm of earthquakes
about 150 km NW of Gamalama. They registered 67 moderate to strong
earthquakes in the region (Molucca Sea) with magnitudes ranging from 4.0
- 6.8 in last 30 days.

The last time this volcano appeared in GVP's weekly volcanic report was during the week of October 10 - 16, 2012:

CVGHM reported that eruptions at Gamalama during September 15 - 16
prompted CVGHM to raise the Alert Level to 3 (on a scale of 1-4) on
September 16. An eruption on September 17 produced a white-and-gray
plume that rose 300 m above the crater and drifted E and SE.

Ashfall was
reported in the ESE part of Ternate (S, SE, and E part of island).
After the eruption through October 8 white plumes rose 10-50 m high.
Seismicity decreased in early October. The Alert Level was decreased to 2
on October 9. Visitors and residents were warned not to approach the
crater within a radius of 1.5 km.

Geologic summary

Gamalama (Peak of Ternate) is a near-conical stratovolcano that
comprises the entire island of Ternate off the western coast of
Halmahera and is one of Indonesia's most active volcanoes. The island of
Ternate was a major regional center in the Portuguese and Dutch spice
trade for several centuries, which contributed to the thorough
documentation of Gamalama's historical activity.

Three cones,
progressively younger to the north, form the summit of Gamalama, which
reaches 1715 m. Several maars and vents define a rift zone, parallel to
the Halmahera island arc, that cuts the volcano. Eruptions, recorded
frequently since the 16th century, typically originated from the summit
craters, although flank eruptions have occurred in 1763, 1770, 1775, and
1962-63. (GVP) - The Watchers.

The ground near Ship Creek in downtown Anchorage, Alaska, is void of
snow on Thursday, Nov. 20, 2014. Unlike other cities across the nation
digging out for snowstorms, Alaska's largest city is bare of snow. This
time of year, Anchorage normally has nearly 17 inches of snowfall.
Instead, it's seen less than 4 inches, and that snow fell a month ago
and melted in unseasonably warmer weather. (AP Photo/Mark Thiessen)

December 20, 2014 - ALASKA
- A week before Christmas, Alaska's largest city should look like a
postcard wonderland, and the last place you'd expect to see equipment
making snow.

"We
want Santa to bring snow, soon," Terry Goodwin said as she hit a ski
trail in Anchorage on Thursday near snowmaking machines churning out the
white stuff.

A picturesque
northern winter-scape is hardly the reality here as a spate of weird
weather lingers in Anchorage, which is almost 2 feet behind the snowfall
totals typical by this time. With just days to go until solstice Sunday
signals the official start of winter, bare ground can be seen in places
and temperatures have been averaging in the 30s, prompting a few hardy
residents to take to the streets in T-shirts and shorts.

For
the most part, it's even been too warm to make snow for local ski
haunts because the machines would churn out slush. However, a slight dip
in temperatures allowed the Nordic Skiing Association of Anchorage to
manufacture powder Thursday on trails at the city's Kincaid Park. That
will have to do until nature provides its own supply.

"It's one of those things we have to weather through. Pardon the pun," said Craig Norman, a trail groomer for the association.

By
this time of year, Anchorage normally has 30.9 inches of snowfall,
according to National Weather Service meteorologist Bill Ludwig. But the
city has seen 10.3 inches this season from just two measurable
snowfalls, with much of that melted down to a thin layer in many places.

December
has seen above normal temperatures every day so far, although
Thursday's high of 26 degrees came close to the norm of 25. Wednesday's
high temperature was 36 degrees. To date, the average temperatures for
the month have been more than 8 degrees above normal, Ludwig said. The
average low for December so far is nearly 23 degrees, compared with the
normal low of 13.

A pressure
system that has pushed warmer weather to the north more than usual is a
factor in the extended warming spell, according to Ludwig. Coastal water
temperatures near Alaska also have been between 5 and 8 degrees above
normal at times this year, he said.

There
is no bitter cold in the foreseeable forecast, either, with
temperatures expected to be above or near normal through the end of the
year, Ludwig said. There's a decent chance of snow sometime next week,
but probably not the big heaping mounds that would bring out hordes of
winter recreationists, including skiers like Ludwig. Others may be
tackling thinly covered cross-country skiing trails, but that's not
enough of a cushion for him, he said.

"I tend to fall a lot," he said. "I want more snow."

At
the Hilltop Ski Area, crews also have been making snow for downhill
runs, but that's not doable when temperatures are above 25 degrees, said
CEO Steve Remme. One week before Christmas, only 1 1/2 of the area's
four runs were open, and Remme was hoping to get more snow made for the
weekend.

In the meantime,
people keep calling to ask if the area is open. They won't have to do
that once the real stuff falls and they have to kick their way through
it to get to their cars, Remme said.

The event was associated with a long duration
radio burst (TenFlare) lasting nearly an hour and measuring 2300 solar
flux units (SFU). A type II radio emission with an estimated velocity of
900 km/s was also detected.

Radio emissions from shock waves
rippling through the sun's atmosphere suggest that a CME is en route.
However, we are still waiting for data from SOHO coronagraphs to confirm
the existence and trajectory of a massive storm cloud. If a CME is
coming, it will probably take 2 to 3 days to reach Earth.

Description:
A 10cm radio burst indicates that the electromagnetic burst associated
with a solar flare at the 10cm wavelength was double or greater than the
initial 10cm radio background. This can be indicative of significant
radio noise in association with a solar flare. This noise is generally
short-lived but can cause interference for sensitive receivers including
radar, GPS, and satellite communications.

Potential Impacts: Area of impact consists of large portions of the sunlit side of Earth, strongest at the sub-solar point.Radio - Wide area blackout of HF (high frequency) radio communication for about an hour.

WATCH: Major X1.8 Solar Flare - December 20, 2014.

There
has already been one Earth-effect: Extreme UV radiation from the flare
ionized our planet's upper atmosphere and blacked out HF radio
communications over Australia and the South Pacific. Below 10 MHz,
transmissions were strongly attenuated for more than two hours.